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2005 Recipients
- Biographies
Tim Borlase
Tim Borlase has distinguished himself in the Labrador community as a
driving force for the arts and education. He has been actively involved
in promoting and sustaining the arts and culture of Labrador for more
than 30 years. He has modified, adopted and supplemented educational
programs in all areas of curriculum to accommodate Aboriginal peoples in
isolated communities in Labrador
Mr. Borlase is the founder and organizer of the Labrador Creative Arts
Festival, an event which has brought students from various Labrador
communities together to present their original scripts on issues of
concern. Furthermore, he has been instrumental in the development and
delivery of the Melville Music Festival, the Heritage Fair, the North
Coast Sports Meet, and the High School Drama Festival. He is also the
founder and director of the Mokami Players, an adult theatre group in
Happy Valley-Goose Bay. He also oversees the Happy Valley-Goose Bay Arts
Council, a volunteer group which brings in visiting artists.
Often touted as a catalyst for cultural expression and community growth,
Mr. Borlase is credited with furthering the cause of arts and culture
within our province as a whole. He is viewed as a living example of how
cultural pursuits can be used to better the society in which we live. In
a region often burdened with difficult social realities, he has proven
the social opportunities that art can produce. He has shown those with
whom he has worked that there is great beauty in tradition, expression
and diversity.
The work of Mr. Borlase has transcended his own community to furthering
the cause of arts and culture within our province as a whole. His
dedication to the Association of Cultural Industries has seen him become
one of the authors of the Cultural Policy for the entire province.
Additionally, in this age of globalization and interconnectivity, being
rooted in one’s own culture, heritage and history is essential for young
people. For Tim Borlase, this may be seen as his greatest legacy.
Tom Cahill
Known as an individual who has chiseled inside the provincial soul and
exposed the vibrant pulse of its people through his writing and various
productions, Mr. Cahill has demonstrated the uniqueness of the
Newfoundland experience and its place in Canada. For more than half a
century, he has promoted our way of life through stage, television and
radio, highlighting our colourful history through truth and humour.
All of Mr. Cahill’s productions and plays not only focused on a distinct
Newfoundland theme, but contributed to the preservation of our unique
culture, history and pride. In all, he has written and produced numerous
plays and dramas for the Provincial Drama Festival, as well as for CBC
television. Some of his most noteworthy productions include Yesterday’s
Heroes, Tales From Pigeon Inlet, and Where Once They Stood.
He has won awards, including the Actra Union Award for the Sir Humprhey
Gilbert Story as the best television production in Canada; the CBC
President’s Award for consistently producing, with limited means,
regional television programs; and the Anik Award for As Loved Our
Fathers.
Mr. Cahill was an active member of the Arts Council of Newfoundland and
Labrador for many years, and served as chairman for several terms. He
has often been referenced as the foremost of our locally-born
playwrights, as well as an inspired satirist and a gifted television
producer. He is respected by not only the arts community, but the
province in general, for the many contributions to which he has
dedicated so much love and attention. He is credited with preserving our
identity as Newfoundlanders and Labradorians and positively influencing
the literary and cultural life of the province.
Both provincial and national audiences have heard and seen our local
story through the works of Mr. Cahill. He has become known as a renowned
cultural figure in the province, with some regarding him a neglected
genius. His works are considered to be classics, his dedication to the
province he loves is overwhelming, and he is revered by a cultural
community who acknowledge the effect he has had on their industry.
Desmond Dillon
Desmond Dillon has the distinction of being a renowned volunteer who
gains much personal satisfaction from helping others whenever and
wherever he can. His spirit of volunteerism is the very essence of his
life and work. Through his career as a social worker, he worked with
numerous community organizations and committees working to provide
programs and services aimed at enhancing the well being of the community
and its residents.
His work as a volunteer has been recognized by many of the organizations
with whom he serves – the Canadian Red Cross, Royal Life Saving Society,
American Red Cross – to name just a few. He has become a noted
contributor to the global community, assisting with the California
earthquake, flooding in Manitoba, Swissair disaster, Kosovar refugees,
September 11th attack, and the Badger flood. He is noted as being a
humble man who seeks no recognition for his outstanding accomplishments.
He is a true leader, never asking of others what he wouldn’t do himself.
Mr. Dillon is an example of how one committed individual can quietly
change a community for the better, one selfless, dignified act at a
time. He has provided exemplary leadership to the Central Regional
Health and Community Services Board from its inception to the present.
He has accepted leadership roles under difficult circumstances and
demonstrated excellence and competence throughout the process.
As a social worker, he has helped institute changes to the current
childcare legislation that have bettered the lives of those in need and
those who live in poverty in this province. This driving philosophy has
also been demonstrated in his professional volunteer career as well. His
dedication to the human services field is paralleled only by his
dedication to ensuring respect for his fellow human beings. He is a true
asset to the many organizations with whom he volunteers, and a
motivation to his family, co-workers, friends and community.
Susan Knight
Susan Knight’s accomplishments are borne from her genuine love of this
province, her immense appreciation for its culture and heritage, her
inspiration of excellence and her amazing skill as a musician, choral
director and teacher. She has shown the international community that
this unique place is a centre of musical and cultural excellence. Under
her guidance, many children have absorbed an overwhelming sense of place
as Newfoundlanders and Labradorians.
In 1992, Ms. Knight founded the Newfoundland Symphony Youth Choir which
she describes as a "cultural agency that expresses itself through choral
music." Under her direction, the choir has performed and built cultural
connections throughout the world. The accomplishments of this choir
include many national and international tours, cultural exchanges with
Iceland, Quebec, England and Finland, as well as prestigious invitations
to perform for renowned audiences such as Her Majesty the Queen at Roy
Thompson Hall and in New York City for the American Choral Directors
Association.
Ms. Knight’s contribution to the appreciation of our culture is further
demonstrated through the Cultural Enhancement Program of the Symphony
Youth Choir. This program of instruction in traditional instruments such
as strings, flute and percussion imparts the value, skills and knowledge
base of traditional Newfoundland and Labrador cultural practices. It
further enhances choristers’ musical development, as well as hones
leadership skills which they, in turn, take with them into the community
and all spheres of life.
In 2004 Ms. Knight received an honourary degree from Memorial
University.
Ms. Knight also founded and is the artistic co-director of Festival 500:
Sharing the Voices, an international choir festival which takes place in
this province every two years. Additionally, she was the creator and
artistic director of Making Waves, a Marconi Celebration Project held in
2001; creator and producer of Full Circle, a Viking Millennium Project;
creator of "So You Always Wanted to Sing," a ground-breaking course for
inhibited adult singers; as well as twelve published commissions. She
describes herself as a "person of this place" with her hand at her
heart, as she vows to do anything that she can do to ensure the value of
this place in its own people and beyond here, to make sure that it’s
here for other generations.
Ingeborg Marshall
Ms. Marshall is a renowned expert on the history, ethnography, and
archaeology of the Beothuk Indians of Newfoundland. Over the past 30
years, she has meticulously and tirelessly carried out research on this
indigenous culture. She has published widely, writing six books and 17
academic papers. She has also given 11 conference papers in regional and
national venues. Her crowning achievement is her landmark volume, A
History and Ethnography of the Beothuk (1996), now in its third
printing.
Ms. Marshall’s research reaches a broad audience, including children of
various ages. Two of her books were written specifically for young
people and, one of them, The Red Ochre People, was adopted for the
school curriculum for grades 5 and 6. She has been an adviser to the
Newfoundland Museum on the Beothuk component of The Rooms’ permanent
exhibition and has also written for the Memorial University Heritage Web
site. The quality of her scholarly activity is reflected in all of her
endeavours, as is her passion for truth and accuracy for telling the
Beothuk story.
She has been described as one of the province’s living treasures, a
distinction best measured by her years of personal commitment to the
preservation of one aspect of the province’s iconography, namely the
Beothuk Indians. She has contributed significantly to Aboriginal
heritage, prehistory and history. Moreover, her research methods are
exacting and multi-disciplinary, and have provided a working model for a
generation of anthropologists inspired by her work.
As a person, she has always combined vitality and perseverance with a
great kindness of spirit. She continues to maintain an active agenda
answering inquiries, co-researching the life of William Eppes Cormack,
and pursuing the search for still undiscovered Beothuk material. She has
given this province many tangible results of her efforts. This is her
legacy to the province’s remarkable heritage – a heritage to which she
has dedicated her life.
Shane O’Dea
Having distinguished himself as a teacher, scholar and preservationist,
Mr. O’Dea has also gained provincial and national renown for his service
to the heritage community of Newfoundland and Labrador. He has
demonstrated how one individual can make a difference through his
knowledge of the architectural and material culture of the province, his
commitment to its preservation and his ability to communicate that
knowledge and passion. In fact, governments at all levels have sought
his advice and appointed him to major heritage boards and committees.
Mr. O’Dea has been cited as a first-rate scholar and outstanding teacher
who has inspired and enriched the lives of countless students at
Memorial University. He has adopted, as a special field of interest, the
built heritage of Newfoundland and Labrador and has become a recognized
authority in the area. Not only has he demonstrated a knowledge of the
architecture, building forms and techniques of our domestic, vernacular
and public buildings and structures, he has committed considerable
energies to their conservation, preservation and reconstruction.
Having served on innumerable national and provincial boards dealing with
matters relating to the arts and heritage, Mr. O’Dea has played a
significant role in the majority of preservation efforts and activities
that have taken place in the province over the past 30 years. He has
been instrumental in researching, documenting and maintaining our
architectural heritage. He has ensured that the material history and the
architectural treasures of the province will continued to be appreciated
in the future, not through written descriptions, photographs and
drawings, but as the real, the actual and the true item.
His influence is best described in the following: "For Mr. O’Dea,
restoration and documentation are of prime importance in illuminating
how the past is still alive and continues to impress a unique stamp
deeply onto our present lives without our really knowing. The retention
in solid and material form of those things that explicitly reflect our
living past allow us to understand their potency in the present."
Deborah (Debbie) Powers
The name Debbie Powers is synonymous with the protection and best
interests of animals in the province. As the Executive Director of the
Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA) here in
Newfoundland and Labrador, she has dedicated more than 30 years of
volunteer work toward this cause…volunteer work that usually constitutes
24-hour days, seven days a week. She is unyielding and relentless in her
pursuit of ensuring that animals receive the best care possible,
investing her time and resources without any compensation.
Ms. Powers’ unwavering commitment to her community has been recognized
by many. She has received the Newfoundland and Labrador Volunteer
Service Medal, Women of Distinction Award, the Frederic McGrand Award,
and the Canada 125 medal. While best known for her work with animal
welfare, Ms. Powers has also been actively involved with the Alzheimer’s
Society of Newfoundland and Labrador, the palliative care unit at St.
Clare’s Mercy Hospital, and was formerly a member of the Imperial Orders
of the Daughter of the Empire. Her service to her community is
unquestioned and unrivaled.
Many can testify not only to the dedication and long hours she gives to
her work, but to the emotional sacrifices she must often make in
rescuing animals from neglect and abuse. She has virtually
single-handedly raised the degree of priority accorded to crimes of
animal abuse in the province. She was also the individual who helped the
new shelter from which the SPCA operates to become a reality. She is
also a tireless fundraiser for the shelter as well, and her passion for
the animals has often been deemed infectious.
Ms. Powers has touched the lives of many people in this province, most
notably her co-workers at the shelter. She leads through example,
showing those around her that person by person, event by event, animal
by animal, everyone of us can make a difference. She genuinely cares
about the animals, her community and, indeed, her province. It has been
said of her that she truly has a heart of compassion and gentle hands
and kindly words, not just for the animals, but for all deserving
creatures.
Janet Story
Janet Story is renowned for her outstanding contribution to the nursing
profession, the preservation of its history, as well as her work with
numerous volunteer organizations. Noted as being one the leaders in
establishing the Association of Registered Nurses of Newfoundland and
Labrador (ARNNL), Ms. Story and a small group of nurses succeeded in
establishing self regulation for the nursing profession in the province
more than 50 years ago. She has worked hard to improve the standards of
nursing education and its practice in the public’s interest.
Ms. Story has been instrumental in highlighting and preserving the
nursing culture in Newfoundland and Labrador. She led the establishment
of two nursing archives in the province: the professional archives at
ARNNL House and the Lillian Stevenson Archives at the L.A. Miller
Centre. As both the archivist and curator, she secured the necessary
workforce to organize the papers of the first nursing school, the
General Hospital School of Nursing, established in 1903. These documents
are an important aspect of not only the nursing profession of the
province, but the social history of the province as well.
Ms. Story’s vision of nursing focused on continuous educational
opportunities for nurses and the subsequent improvement for the patients
they served. In her tenure as the Director of Nursing at the General
Hospital for 20 years, she implemented a homecare program to reduce the
length of hospital stay for patients; conducted nurse utilization and
activity studies to provide evidence for nurse staffing; established an
on-site day care; contracted a nursing recruiter in the U.K. to recruit
nurses to meet staffing shortages; and implemented the modern "unit
nursing" workplace design to ensure nurses have everything at hand to
deliver their services.
As an active member of many volunteer organizations, Ms. Story has been
recognized for her selfless contributions with the Queen’s Jubilee
Medal, a Canadian Red Cross Long Service Award, and honourary
memberships in the Museum Association of Newfoundland and Labrador,
Atlantic Region Canadian Association of University Schools of Nursing,
General Hospital School of Nursing Alumnae, and the ARNNL. Known as a
modest and wise lady, she is also a committed leader who has impacted
the development of our province and many of its citizens. |
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